User blog:Asarane/Chapter 6: The Academy
'The Academy' The sound of dogs barking. Deyall stumbled along with his hands tied in front of him. The man on the other end of the rope kept yanking. Therefore, Deyall had lost all feeling in his hands. But not his wrists, sadly. Those ached. Blisters were burst as soon as they formed because of the rope. He had blood running down his arms slowly. He was just glad that he didn’t have anything on his legs, or he would have collapsed a long time ago. He looked up. The town was drawing nearer. It was most likely Skaroth. Most people said that those that lived in Skaroth were insane. Tainted by the forest. Deyall hoped not. Do they really eat people? He asked himself. Surely not. The dragon Riders would keep them in line. This helped him feel better. A bit. The fact that there was two dragons flying overhead was a little scary. As they drew nearer he saw that no one was outside, even though it was almost midday. Walking through the town square, still no one showed. He was marched up to a building. They threw him against a wall. He slid to the floor, exhausted. They started to haul him up again, when the dragons landed. One of the men drew a knife. “No time for fun, kill ‘im ‘fore the Riders get here.” The one with the knife said. The one that seemed to have some authority shrugged. “I hoped for fun, but meat is meat.” One who seemed to be the runt spoke. “I don’t wanna be dead!” “Dead how?” The knife one asked. “Shut up.” Said the leader. “Kill ‘im. Quick! We pretend we don’t know he spos to live.” The one with the knife raised it. It flew out of his hand, imbedding itself in the leaders throat. Deyall stared in shock. One of the dragon Riders walked up casually. He wore black robes, his face was hidden. He pulled the knife slowly out of the leaders throat. It came out with a sickening sound. Deyall shuddered. He figured it had gone in the man’s windpipe, giving him no chance to make a single sound. Deyall noticed a person at one of the windows. A girl maybe five years old. She stared at the man not with horror, but with hunger. He threw up. The dragon Rider turned slowly to the man who had the knife originally. The man started to back away. The other dragon Rider grabbed him from behind. The one with the knife walked up until they were standing face to face. “You thought to go behind my back?” The Rider’s voice sounded surprisingly young. “No one has ever succeeded in that.” The knife came up. The man had died slowly. Deyall had looked away quickly. He had never seen someone cut someone else's heart out before, and he didn’t want to. “If you were goin’ ta cut ‘is ‘eart out, couldn’t yuve done it faster?” The runt Skarlothian said. ' '“Now, why would I have done that?” “Er, I dunno. Yer gonna kill me now?” “Give me a reason. Oh, wait, I don’t need one. The runt got stabbed under the chin. It went straight to his brain. He had thrashed around for a while. The Rider had let go of the knife, so the runt fell right at Deyall’s feet. He straightened. He had seen worse. And also maybe he didn’t want to throw up twice in a day. The runt was still thrashing when Deyal was grabbed, one Rider to an arm, even though he thought one would have been enough, and marched to the dragons. He was slung onto the back of the Blue. As he was, his foot stuck in a groove on the dragon’s side. It jumped into the air and smashed back down. It repeated this process until he yanked his foot from the hole. He peered back at it. It was a brand. You could see the burn marks around the edges. It was shaped like a dragon. And dyed black. The Rider of the dragon reacted rather angrily. ' '“What do you think you’re doing?” The Rider asked. “Are you daft?!” “I’m sorry, it was an accident!” Deyall said. ''' '''The Rider mumbled something, and jumped lightly onto the dragon’s back. The Blue leapt off the ground. Coming quickly behind it was the Purple. They flew at a speed that frightened Deyall. “May I ask where we are going?” He asked. “Miria. Our home. And soon it will be yours too.” “What do you mean?” “I’ll give you a bit of advice, don’t resist. If you do, your mind will be wiped.” “What?!” “The master sensed power from both you and your friend. Sadly he managed to get into the woods. Anyway, the master said to bring you back to make you into dragon Riders. Sounds like fun, right? You can kill anyone you want!” “I’ve never killed anyone before.” Deyall said. “I forgot, you were a slave. So was I. Once. Now I am part of the most powerful order in existence. I am more powerful than the entire Circle put together.” “Would I get to kill my old master?” The idea filled him with glee. “If you want. I did.” This didn’t seem to bad. Maybe being captured wasn’t so bad. He had nothing to worry about. No James, so he was fine. But he didn’t want to kill people. Alex. Would he be pitted against Alex? When he asked, the answer was maybe. ' '“We have a few dragons that are open, but first you have to be melded with the master. This will make it so he is aware of what you are doing. It prevents betrayal.” “Okay.” It really didn’t sound bad. ''' '''After that brief exchange, they didn’t speak. Deyall took note of how affectionate of the Blue the Rider was. It crossed his mind he didn’t ask the Rider’s name. He would ask it later. It also finally sunk in that the Rider had said they were going to Miria. The capital. He had never been there. He had heard it was huge. It was. When the city came into view, he was overwhelmed. It stretched out of sight in all directions. In the center, there was the biggest building he had ever seen. Spires stretched far enough that he was sure the reached the sun, and they were only half as tall as the palace itself. The Rider turned around, took one look at his face, and burst out laughing. “Most people faint, but that face is better. Hahaha!” The Rider laughed so hard he slipped sideways and fell off the dragon. It tossed its head, roared, icey vapor filling the air, and dove towards the Rider. It swooped under him so that he fell straight onto its back. The Rider was still laughing. Does he even realise he fell off?'' Deyall asked himself.' 'Yes, he just knows I always catch him. A female voice said. It was the dragon. Deyall suddenly felt a longing to have a dragon too.' 'You shall. Said the dragon. By the way, my name is Iceshadow, and my Rider’s name is Wrn. What is yours? ''' '''''Deyall. What is the Purple’s name? And her Rider? Phantom and Jerlt. Ah. Thank you. I and my Rider shall help you as much as we can through the becoming of a Rider. However, we cannot help you with the picking of your dragon. You must figure out which is the best match for you alone. Why? Nevermind. Okay. I can no longer talk, as I am about to land. Landing here takes a lot of concentration. Okay. Thank you. Iceshadow swept down. Straight towards the castle. When they were close enough to collide with the castle, a pair of huge doors swing inward, opening a path. Iceshadow flew through. Inside, the walls were lined with doors. The ones on the Left being big enough for a dragon, and the ones on the right big enough for a human. Phantom landed behind them. Usually the ground shook when dragons landed. He knew from experience. This time, though, it didn’t even tremble. The doors swung shut behind them. Wrn slid to the ground. Jerlt did the same. “Come on.” Wrn said to Deyall. So Deyall attempted to slide gracefully to the ground like the Riders, but failed pretty badly. He ached for a while after. “Quite the Rider you got there, Wrn.” Jerlt laughed. Deyall winced. “Like you were any better.” Wrn said. “Like either of us was.” He seemed to slip away. Jerlt shook his shoulder and he came back. ' '“Well, come on dragon Rider.” Jerlt said to Deyall. “What’s your name? Mine is Jerlt. I’m sure Wrn already introduced himself.” “I didn’t, but Iceshadow told him my name, your name, her own, and Phantom’s.” “She’s a talker, that one.” “Remember when I couldn’t get her to talk at all?” “Somehow I think that was better. Now she talks all day everyday.” The pair of them removed their hoods. They both had black hair. And they both had necklaces that were shaped like dragons. The dragons were black. Deyall’s hair was brown. He wondered if black hair was a requirement of being a Rider. Maybe he couldn’t be one? Don’t be silly.'' Iceshadow said to him. ''Wrn had black hair to start with, but Jerlt’s is dyed. He had red hair. It’s a rarity, but you have to have black hair to be a Rider. Oh. That’s good to know. Meanwhile, Wrn and Jerlt were caught up talking to a pair of young girls wearing black robes with no hoods, and veils. They seemed to be arguing with them, but finally gave up and led their dragons through one of the doors that lined the hall to the left. The two girls walked up to Deyall. ' '“Come with us.” One of them said. “We shall take you to your room. You shall share it with three other boys.” He decided to just do what they said and ask no questions. He followed them through one of the doors to the right. They walked down a short hallway, which turned into a spiral stairwell. The stairs were covered in a soft carpet. His feet sunk into them. He resisted the urge to take off his boots so that he could walk in it. His boots were in bad enough shape that he could feel the carpet in some places anyway. Along the stairs, there were doors along the wall. Deyall wasn’t sure how this was accomplished. Each door had a number on it. They walked down for forever before one of the girls spoke. “Here you are. Number eight hundred and four.” she handed him a key with that number on it. “Now, there should be clothes in there. Proper clothes. The baths are all the way down at the bottom of the stairs. The bottom is one-thousand doors down. Go get a bath, then change. I will check to make sure you did get bathed.” She and the other girl started back up the stairs. A real bath? He thought. Oh boy! Then decided this wasn’t so great. ''I wonder how far the stairs go down? Let’s see. One thousand. There is a door about every five feet, five feet times one hundred and something equals I don’t know. Maybe it’s two hundred? Uh. I don’t know. Not as far as I have gone so far, I think.'' He sighed, grasped the key tightly in his hand, and began down the stairs. He didn’t want to think about heading back up the stairs. No wonder the Riders are so gosh dang fit! Deyall collapsed back on his bed. He was exhausted. He was now wearing a black tunic with long sleeves, over tight black pants, with black leather boots, and black gloves. He didn’t have robes yet. The walk up from the baths had been awful. He had yet to have roomates, so maybe he could settle in before he got some. He lay staring at the ceiling for a long time. The ceiling was black painted stone. As were the walls. And the floor. His bed was extremely comfortable. There was a chest at the foot of the bed in which he had found the clothes he now wore. All his new clothes were black. His sheets were black! ''My life is black. I feel like a mourner.'' He rested for a while, then decided he would go try to find Wrn and Jerlt. He prepared himself to face the stairs, and opened his door. Just about six feet up the stairs was Wrn. Deyall sighed with relief. “I was just about to go find you.” He said. “I can see why you’re relieved to see me then.” Wrn said with a grin. “It’s time you met your trainer. You’ll get this entire day to explore, then you will be trained. Training takes up pretty much the entire day, so I suggest you use this day well.” “Ugh. My legs hurt so much though.” “I said the same thing. Also, Jerlt and I will be your roomates. Along with some new kid. I don’t know who he is. I managed to arrange it so. It took a lot of talking on my part, which I don’t like.” Deyall thought of how nice Wrn was, but then thought of how heartlessly he killed people. Will I be like that? I guess I’ll deal with it. I want to have friends here, no matter if they’re pretty much law enforcement. “Let’s go meet my trainer then.” They marched up the stairs together. When they reached the hallway at the top, Deyall was panting. Wrn didn’t seem to feel the exertion, but he waited for Deyall to catch his breath. Once he was breathing again, they walked down the hall to the door. Jerlt was waiting there for them. ' '“Hi Wrn, Deyall.” He said when they walked up. Well, Wrn walked up. Deyall was having a harder time of it. “Deyall, you wanna see the stables?” “Why do I not think horses when you say that?” “Because you are very perceptive.” Wrn laughed. “Actually, there are horses.” Jerlt said. “You just like dragons more.” “There are?” Wrn asked, looking surprised. “Two years you’ve been here, and you didn’t know there was horses?” “Well, yeah.” Jerlt sighed. “I’ll have to show it to two people now!” “Fine by me.” Deyall said. “Let’s go.” They walked across the big hall. The doors were still closed, but now there was several dragons around. Gold, Silver, Red, Blue, Green, and Purple. And some brown ones. “The Gold ones have the ability to concentrate sunlight into lasers.” Jerlt said. “And the Silver ones spit mercury, often called quicksilver, the Red ones breathe fire, the Blue ones spit ice, the Green ones spew poisonous gas, and the Purple ones call down lightning from the sky.” “Oh. What about the brown ones?” Deyall asked. “Oh them? The only things they do is fly, eat, and sleep.” “Hm.” They went through one of the big doors that was on the left from the big doors. This was a hallway that slanted down. No stairs here. For that, he was glad. They walked for a considerably shorter time than it took to go to his room. The floor evened out, and large gates appeared on either side. Iceshadow stuck her head out of one of them. Or, Deyall thought it was her. Greetings. Have you come to scratch me? Not right now. But I will later! What are you doing then? I’m taking a tour of the palace. Don’t want to get lost tomorrow. Hm. You humans get lost easily. “This is where trained dragons live.” Wrn said. “The ones with Riders. The ones without live in smaller areas.” “Can I just look around? Meet the dragons?” “Okay. But if they are sleeping, leave them alone. They have big jobs.” Deyall nodded. He walked slowly down the hall. Most of the dragons were sleeping. Including Phantom. Iceshadow seemed like she was about to slip off too. The dragons that were awake raised their heads to get a glimpse of him, but lowered them again as soon as they did. “Now to see the untrained and Riderless ones.” Jerlt said. “Okay.” They walked into a doorway about forty dragon stalls down. It was nestled in between two stalls. There was a spiral ramp down for a ways, then another hall lined with stalls. “Be careful.” Wrn said. “The untrained can be violent and unpredictable.” “Got it.” Deyall said. He began walking down the hall. He noticed a lot of them lay as if dead. Hardly breathing. Some had metal clamps on their jaws, to prevent them from biting, or spitting poisonous gas or quicksilver or anything else like that. One stood out to him. It was white. Not Silver. White. Like the clouds. He stood staring at it until Wrn and Jerlt came running. “Is something wrong?” Jerlt asked. “No. Not really. I just never heard of a white dragon before. What do they do?” “Um. Well. We kind of maybe don’t know what she does. She won’t speak to anyone, and has never done anything but lay in her stall. We figure she is like the brown ones.” “Oh.” He looked in the stall. The dragon’s eye was open, but snapped shut when he looked at it. Or he was pretty sure it was open. He turned his head so it looked like he was looking at Jerlt and Wrn, but kept his eye on the dragon. Its eye cracked open a bit, but it snapped shut instantly. Maybe it was smarter than he thought. “Well, let’s not bother her. Maybe she’ll come out of her shell.” Wrn suggested. “Sounds good to me.” Jerlt said. “Wait.” Deyall said. “Can I take care of her? Please?” “We can’t decide that.” “Who do I have to ask?” “You can choose her once you are trained, but personally I think she isn’t the best choice.” “Yeah, not really.” Wrn said. “Sorry.” Deyall looked at the dragon again. Its eye clicked shut with a sound not unlike that of a latch being shut. He looked back at the pair of Riders. They looked surprised. “She has never done that before!” Jerlt said, looking like he was trying hard to appear nonchalant. Wrn just shifted his weight to one foot and said- “Well, maybe she has and we just didn’t see.” “Maybe. Let’s go.” Jerlt said. So they headed back to the big hall in which they had arrived. From there they went all the way down the big hall to where a huge pair doors that looked like the ones the dragons flew through were. Going through those, they entered a room. This room looked like an exercise room. There were about twenty or thirty boys in the room. Squared off against each other, or against what looked like scarecrows. Some of them were being dragged away from the other looking pretty well dead. He flinched as one boy swung a- thing at another boy’s head. It looked like a stick attached by a chain to a ball with spikes on it. The other boy was armed with only a dagger. He thought it was going to hit, but the boy ducked at the last second, rolled to the side, and drove his shoulder into the others gut. Having accomplished this, he brought the knife up into the other boy’s jaw. The boy with the mace jerked, almost dislodging the knife, but if he had it wouldn’t have done any good. It looked like the knife had gone through his skin, then his tongue, then the roof of his mouth, then lodged in his brain. Blood dribbled out of the boy’s mouth. He collapsed. Deyall could feel bile rise in his throat. He had been sure that boy would succeed, but within five seconds of Deyall first seeing him, he was lying on the floor dead. The boy with the knife stood staring at the body. It looked like he was crying. He continued to stare at the same spot even after the body was removed. Deyall felt a hand grab his shoulder. He spun around, wide eyed. “Don’t look at that.” Wrn said. “Yeah.” Jerlt said. “Just feel happy you won’t be there until they deem you ready.” Here he glanced at the boy with the knife, who was now kneeling. “Though sometimes they are wrong. That boy has only been here a couple weeks. He isn’t ready to kill people. Poor Krrd.” Deyall wondered if Krrd was the dead one, or the one still sobbing on the floor. “Yeah. I wish they could tell when kids weren’t strong enough. They go by whether or not the kid is skilled, not whether they are prepared mentally.” Wrn said. “Let’s go meet your trainer.” Jerlt said. Deyall just nodded. This didn’t seem so great anymore. Will I even survive long enough to get a dragon?He asked himself, doubtfully. It’s okay, small one, you have spirit, I believe in you. Iceshadow said. He was relieved to hear her. Are you sure? I trust you. I believe you will not be a cruel master to one of us, so I trust you. Therefore, I will try to help you as much as possible. Okay. I’ll try to stay alive then. Good. Never give up. He followed Jerlt and Wrn to a side door into a much smaller chamber. “This is where you will be taught first martial arts, then how to use weapons.” Jerlt told him. “Your fighting trainer will meet you here tomorrow. Now that you know how to get here, we will show you how to get to the library. You will learn how to perfect your reading and writing there. Because you were a slave, you most likely don’t know how to do either of those at all, therefore, you will be in the beginners class. This way.” They left the side room, and headed to the end of the slaughter hall, as Deyall decided to name it, and went through the small door at the end. Stairs heading upward greeted them. Deyall groaned. ' '“Not more stairs!” He complained. “Yes more stairs.” Jerlt said gleefully. “It’ll be great fun!” Deyall was certain this was not going to be the case. “How long are these stairs?” Well, let’s see.. Hmmm. To the top of one of the towers.” Deyall collapsed. � Category:Blog posts